Sorry la ...
My poison has lost its sting among the elated gurus here. Anyway, Kev ... I think the guys here have given you some very sound ( pun intended ) advice and you cud hardly go wrong. I wud however say that the circa RM2K budget can yield some very interesting results. More on that later ...
Music among other things in life is very personal. I cud spend hours listening to a bunch Cuban old men ( BVSC, la ) strumming away while your idea of musical bliss is probably to wind down to sweet Silje Neergaard. The golden rule in ICE as always is to let your ears be the judge. You're on the right track as far as I see it .. you have accepted the fact that hardware is only one half of the equation ... the other is obviously the Black Art of set-up and tuning that so many of our local shops lack these days .... :lazy:
A 2K budget can be maximised once you know what can be achieved with it ... obviously pre-owned gears will give you maximum bang for the bucks but choosing/matching them carefully is another ball game. Match a pair of bright natured speakers like Focals to bring thinny sounding amps and your ears will start bleeding after just half an hour of serious listening. Or, take warm sounding speakers like PHDs and pair them off with similar sounding amps from Audison or Genesis and you'll get ear diabetics in no time.
Just 2 weeks ago, a lady pall of mine came with a task of trying to achieve some decent music in her new car. The stock system was junk as far she's concerned but she did not want to spend any more than RM2K -/+ to get where she wanted to go. I listed down the kinda of expectations that she had of this new system ( almost similar to your requirements too ) and proceeded to allocate the funds as it was given. We decided that some decent pre-owned hardware were the best choice for the job and proceeded to raid on some SIN friends and the usual ICE forums to unearth some bargains. This is what I managed to turn up for here after a week of hardwork ...
HU - a good cond. 3 1/2 year old Naka CD-45Z CD player. Suits her taste of simple SQ unit minus the bling and hi tech stuff. Recently serviced by the first owner = peace of mind for just - SGD 160.00
Amp - 4 channel Audison SRX4 - a 1 1/2 year old entry level Italian amp. Rated power at 60W x 4 or 190W x 2 after bridged .... Great bargain at SGD 180.00 from a fellow IASCA competitor. The amp will have its channel 1 & 2 driving the front speakers while channel 3 & 4 will be bridged for sub duty.
Front speakers - Helix HX series components. 5.25 inch matched component set with silk dome tweeters and x-overs. About 2 years old but installed in a 2nd car. Paid just SGD 140.00 after some hard negotiation.
Sub - a single Rockford Punch HE in a small 0.85 cft sealed box. Almost 2 years old but still pounds nicely. SGD 120.00 for the whole lot.
Damage so far is SGD 600.00 or about RM 1340.00 after exchange rates. She spent another RM 500.00 on the actual install - decent RCA, power and speaker cables plus fuse and labour. The whole thing cost her just a shade under RM 1850.00 with some extra cash left to buy some decent CDs to do justice to her system.
I'm sharing these with you and the rest mainly just to remind you guys that bargains are always there and once you've decided on the kinda set up you want and the bearing your music taste, go out there and knock on a few doors. Once the hardwares are all in hand, find a good installer who has firm fundamentals of car audio and will set the system up to YOUR taste and preference ... not someone who's main idea is to get the job done as quickly as he can and hope to never see you again.
Enough rambling for now .... do let me know if there's anything that I can do for you ...
Cheers,
